Claudius Ptolemaeus (c. 100 — 170 CE) was a mathematician, astronomer and early cartographer, whose astronomical treatise, mapping handbook and geographical gazetteer remained massively influential throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages. He formulated the geocentric planetary system also known as “Ptolemaic”, later to be superseded by Copernicus.
We decided to propose an alternative to mass tourism with heritage at the core. Our aim is to motivate curiosity and discovery before, during and after your trip. Our map is designed to explore and discover new places. Our tours allow you to experience a destination (from home or on-site) through a new lens that moves away from monotonous “top 10 things to do” and helps you learn about a specific subject and the backstory of places.
We believe this approach creates a stronger bond between visitor and destination and promotes deeper values. It allows us to appreciate the place, and consequently have more respect for our surroundings. In doing so, we aim to promote cultural sustainability, focused on history, art and culture.
Ptolemy is a PWA (Progressive Web Application), meaning that we are a website meant for both mobile and desktop. You can download our app here by taping on “Install” on your Android browser. If you're on iOS Safari this option is in the “Share” menu.
Use our map to check what that little church is, discover hidden ruins in the middle of the forest, or explore prominent places in the city centre! In the future, we want to collect open cultural data from around the web and place it at your fingertips. You will be able to filter places and discover how they relate to each other.
Yes! Whether you are an individual or a business with knowledge of local heritage, you can contact us by e-mail to explain your idea. We will get back to you with the next steps.
Our content is divided into Stories and Tours. Stories are short articles addressing the backstory of a single place or event that took place at a specific location. Our tours, on the other hand, unite several stories under a central theme, connecting related points of interest to create a storytelling experience with a unique twist. You can freely pick the artistic, cultural or historical theme of the tour, and it is important to keep the thread solid throughout.
Yes. We will soon publish our simple guidelines here. You can write in English, Italian, German or Greek.
Currently we translate all our content to English, but we plan to support more languages in the future.
No! We want to create unique experiences for our readers, and we are happy to host new unique content!
Yes. This is an opportunity for local travel agencies, councils, DMOs and other tourism stakeholders to promote their service in alternative digital tourism. We are flexible and happy to talk about your needs.
We welcome your feedback on our project! We are in constant search of support as well as funding. If you like Ptolemy and want to take part, feel free to contact us to set up a meeting.